Politicsconflict & defenseMilitary Operations
Who is Delcy RodrĂguez, Maduro's No. 2 now leading Venezuela?
The sudden and dramatic capture of Venezuelan President NicolĂĄs Maduro has thrust the nation into a profound constitutional and geopolitical crisis, with the immediate future of U. S.-Venezuela relations now resting on the shoulders of Delcy RodrĂguez, the vice president and oil minister who has assumed de-facto leadership. This development represents not merely a shift in personnel but a critical test of Washington's post-intervention strategy and the resilience of the chavista political movement.President Trump's declaration that the United States will 'run Venezuela' and his initial, albeit conditional, endorsement of RodrĂguez as a cooperative figure stand in stark contrast to her own defiant televised address, where she vowed the nation would never again be a colony and insisted Maduro remains the sole legitimate president. This dissonance reveals the precarious nature of the current arrangement; Trump's administration, according to reports from The New York Times, views the English-speaking, oil-savvy RodrĂguez as a pragmatic solution for maintaining stability in the vital energy sector, while explicitly sidelining the internationally recognized opposition leader and Nobel laureate MarĂa Corina Machado, whom Trump dismissed as lacking the necessary national respect.The historical parallel here is fraught, reminiscent of past American interventions where a local administrator was installed to manage affairs, yet the underlying ideological fervor of the incumbent regime proved a stubborn and ultimately disruptive force. RodrĂguez herself is a deeply entrenched figure within chavismo, a 56-year-old Caracas native and daughter of a leftist guerrilla martyr whose career has been defined by fierce loyalty to the socialist project, from her tenure as a combative foreign ministerâonce described by Maduro as a 'tiger' for her defense of his governmentâto her recent consolidation of power over the nation's crumbling oil industry.Her reported movements following the attack, shrouded in conflicting claims of being in Russia or Caracas, only amplify the uncertainty. While the Venezuelan Supreme Court has ordered her to assume the powers of acting president, key U.S. voices like Senator Tom Cotton have already stated America does not recognize her legitimacy, setting the stage for a dangerous limbo.The core question is whether RodrĂguez is playing a strategic game of temporary acquiescence to avert a full-scale military occupation, as hinted by Trump's comments linking U. S.troop presence to her compliance, or if her revolutionary rhetoric signals a prepared, protracted resistance. Her family's history of activism and her own record of condemning U.
#lead focus news
#Venezuela
#Delcy RodrĂguez
#NicolĂĄs Maduro
#US intervention
#political crisis
#oil
#Russia
